Changes in erythrocyte membrane glycoproteins during leukaemia

Changes in erythrocyte membrane glycoproteins during, leukaemia were investigated in one hundred patients. Control group contained normal ones. The total protein and protein bound total carbohydrates (neutral sugars) in the glycoproteins extracted from the erythrocyte membrane showed significant reduction in total protein and protein bound total carbohydrates before radiotherapy. However, after the radiotherapy there was further reduction in total protein by 10.41% whereas there was increase in total carbohydrates by 9.98%. Qualitative analysis reveals that with the help of lectins one can pin point the sugars which appear or disappear due to leukaemia. The test could be of a diagnostic value.     

Feasibility of determination of fertile period in Indian women based on urinary hormone estimations

Baseline data available on the excretory profiles of estrone giucuronide (E₁G), pregnanediol glucuronide (PdG) and luteinising hormone (LH) on human menstrual cycles (n=104) was retrospectively analysed for identifying the limits of fertile period (FP) to be used as natural method of family planning. The limits of fertile period are suggested based on centile distribution of E₁G and PdG levels during defined phase of menstrual cycle. Two approaches, which do not involve any mathematical calculation are suggested. In approach A, fertile period is said to have started when E₁G value of 35 ng/ml is reached and is said to have ended when the PdG value of 2 μg/ml on two consecutive days is obtained. The criteria were applied to 30 test cycles in whom authentic fertile period was identified based on excretory profiles of E₁G, PdG and LH throughout the menstrual cycles. When approach A was followed the authentic fertile period was covered in 27 cycles giving an accuracy of 90% with a mean fertile period length of 9.11+1.9 days. In approach B, the cut off limit of E₁G value was increased to 55 ng/ml in order to reduce the days of abstinence. Though the length of the fertile period was reduced to 7.2+1.5 days the accuracy of the approach was 66.6%. Thus the approach A which has accuracy of 90% may appeal to determined couples who wish to practice family planning by periodic abstinence or restrict the use of barrier methods.     

Sentiment classification: a lexical similarity based approach for extracting subjectivity in documents

With the growth of social media, document sentiment classification has become an active area of research in this decade. It can be viewed as a special case of topical classification applied only to subjective portions of a document (sources of sentiment). Hence, the key task in document sentiment classification is extracting subjectivity. Existing approaches to extract subjectivity rely heavily on linguistic resources such as sentiment lexicons and complex supervised patterns based on part-of-speech (POS) information. This makes the task of subjective feature extraction complex and resource dependent. In this work, we try to minimize the dependency on linguistic resources in sentiment classification. We propose a simple and statistical methodology called review summary (RSUMM) and use it in combination with well-known feature selection methods to extract subjectivity. Our experimental results on a movie review dataset prove the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

Impact of information use architecture on load and usability

Information use is defined as the application of acquired and transmitted information in the decision making of an organization at the strategic and tactical levels. The purpose of the research is to investigate how information use architecture impacts information load and usability at the operational level of manufacturing where machines, humans and the production processes are information users. A new approach to information load is introduced which takes all the characteristics of information use (tacit, mechanical, paper and digitized) and possibilities of users (machine, operator and process) into consideration. Information use nodes are conceptualized building blocks for information use architecture which impact information load and usability. The results suggest that information use load is sensitive to information encoding/decoding. A combination of the federated and integrated information use architectures tends to result in a low information use load and can become a strategic tool for waste reduction. How information usability relates to load varies depending on the usability characteristic in view. The major conclusion is that a holistic approach to information systems includes the consideration of information use architecture which is an important factor in the management of information load and usability at the operational level.     

Integrating design science research and design based research frameworks for developing education support systems

Education and Information Technologies - This paper proposes an integrated research framework that takes advantage of the similarities of design science research (DSR) and Design-based research...     

Evaluation of antioxidant properties of berries

The present paper focuses on assessing the levels of various enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants in selected berries of Indian sub-continent viz., gooseberry, grapes, orange and tomato. This study has revealed that orange, tomato and grapes possess predominant quantities of enzymatic antioxidants namely SOD, catalase and glutathione peroxidase respectively. The levels of antioxidants analyzed namely reduced glutathione, vitamin C and vitamin A were maximal in grapes, orange and tomato respectively. All the extracts of berries included in the present study inhibited iron inducedin vitro lipid peroxidation in erythrocytes, the extend of inhibition being highest for gooseberry and orange compared to tomato and grapes which could be attributed to their in-built antioxidant system.     

Animating critical action learning: process-based leadership and management development

Increasing attention is focusing on the value of critical approaches to enhancing leadership and management development processes. This paper examines how a critical action learning perspectives can be harnessed to produce valuable learning and development through critically reflective practise. Critical action learning approaches not only explore underlying power and control issues, but actively engage in an examination of political and cultural processes affecting leadership development. The aims of this paper are to explore approaches to critical action learning, to elucidate its principal features, to highlight how it can be applied in leadership and management development contexts and, finally, to illuminate some of the complexities and challenges of working with critical action learning in practice.